Monday, May 31, 2004

Monday morning lip gloss marks on my coffee cup.

My eyes are still filled with sleep.

My mind is still singing with the weekend:
...drinks with old work mates, having someone take care of my drunk ass, shopping with my mom and stopping to eat ice cream in the sun, assembling my new desk so I can use my computer (~throws kisses to computer~), waking up to a glorious Sunday morning and going for a long walk/run in my lovely neighborhood, meeting a friend for more shopping and finding her the perfect shirt, meeting another friend for dinner in the Beaches, meeting with yet another friend to help her out with her website before heading home, probably a bit too late...

...only to wake up early on a windy grey Monday to start all over again, drinking coffee and reading the daily health news in a quiet office...

Wednesday, May 26, 2004

Well, I finally had to say no to going out after volleyball! It was a sad moment, and I'm sure everyone involved shed a tear, but I just had to start writing my marketing plan for my class tomorrow night.

I had a lot of fun at volleyball. I mean, OK, I hurt my back again, but it hurt much later in the game than last time. And I really think my reflexes are improving. A little. Or maybe people are just getting more appreciative when I finally manage to HIT the ball...

Regardless, I left work all stressed out and I returned home all but relaxed.

I had a moment on the bus ride to Ashbridges Bay Park, where we play on the beach. I was thinking of Australia. Thinking of David and how he calls me "Miss Bogaart" and his sad little smile when I was being odd. Thinking of Seph (a GE coworker) and his small head, cute accent and sweet freckles. Seph, who's reportedly got a crush on a girl at work but can't get up the courage to ask her out. Seph, who couldn't seem to stop having sex with his Japanese roommate, even though he didn't really fancy her. I thougt of Jan and an evening on the beach in Bunbury, looking for satellites. Sigh... I could hear their voices, almost see everything right there in front of me, taste the air.

Amazing.
When it all seems so far away, I can put myself there in a minute and the rest of the world just falls away...

Projects at work, marketing tests and marketing plans for my course, due all the same week, beach volleyball tonight (OK, you don't have to feel sorry for me about that one), and trying to get settled in my new place...

Monday, May 24, 2004

Happy Birthday, Alex! (yesterday)

Here's to our 10th year of our relationship.

Looking at the yearbook that I made when Alex and I met in my second year of university, I realized how young we were. I'd almost long for those days if it weren't for the classes, stressful deadlines and late nights, endless essays, exams, and living on borrowed money.

Australia was the closest thing I've had to duplicating that sense of freedom. And still came away from it debt-free.

Saturday, May 22, 2004

Saw Troy last night.

Thank goddess I heard a review on the bus yesterday. The woman said it was awful. Specifically, that Brad Pitt was awful.

That meant I had low expectations. So I liked it.
It was pretty good. Lots of very well tuned male bodies. Brad wasn't THAT horrible. I mean, I wouldn't say he was GOOD, but I think he chose a way to portray Achilles that made other people think he was bad. I think he played Achilles as a conflicted playboy hero, disaffected by everything around him. I think it came through alright.

Eric Bana was excellent, but then, his character afforded him that.

My boyfriend in another life, Orlando Bloom, fit the character of Paris quite well. A weak, kind of spoiled, pretty boy. But he was otherwise unremarkable. I mean, it's not like he was playing an ELF. Although he did get to shoot more arrows. Which is kinda sexy.

Wednesday, May 19, 2004

Goodness, has it really been THAT long since I last posted a blog? I am totally fired from my own site!

Seriously, what happened?!

Well, in my defence, I got a bunch of projects at work, so now I'm busy busy project managing the heck out of 'em. So far, so good.

AND I only had ONE cup of tea today!
That just goes to show you how busy I was. Lately, I've been a 3-4 cup girl, and even was mixin' it up with some coffee at work. Those were desperate times, I tell ya!

This weekend, I move into my new place at Bayview and Sheppard! Originally, since it IS the May 2-4 long weekend, I was going to go to Ottawa. But the gods were against me and alas, it is just NOT going to happen. Which is probably for the best, as I feel like I really need to just relax and do all the errands that I've been meaning to do (like cut my hair, for goddessakes!) and get together with my friends again.

I love my friends.
Had a BBQ last weekend with Scott and Kat of RaptorBlog fame. Everything was perfect: the weather, the Lick's burgers, the margueritas, the company. I felt very suburban.

Managed to get together with Tanya on Monday. It was such a nice night. We just walked around the Beaches area, even sat on the pier. Had a great talk.

It's amazing how you can be away from someone for so long, get back together and it's just like old times after about 2 minutes. I guess that's what friendship is all about. To be fair, it has a lot to do with me and the better mood that I'm in these days. I'm in love with the world....

Another night of beach volleyball, another night of gold medal whoop-ass.

Yes, we won all our games!
Yes, we won one of them 25-6.
Yes, we're in the B-league (ahem).

Still, we have fun!
I'm really quite bad and try to make up for it by being the most fun. I try to keep our mind's off the times when we might be sucking and celebrate when we're really cleaning up. I try to keep it light and maybe a bit ridiculous.

After the games, we all go out to the pub and make merry. Last week, I legitimately forgot my wallet. This time, I left it at home in an effort to be able to pay back my mom someday soon. I figured I would eat when I got home. But I was all about the socializing bit.

Even so, everyone else gave me a couple fries here, a chicken wing there, a scrumptious tidbit of ribs, the left-over coleslaw. And suddenly, I felt like I'd eaten TWO meals!

Picked up a new boyfriend at the pub. He's a server there and he doesn't exactly KNOW he's my boyfriend yet, but that's not really important. When it comes to boyfriends, sometimes it's best that they don't know; otherwise, they have a tendency to mess it up.

Thursday, May 13, 2004

Last night, I took our beach volleyball team to unprecedented heights of success. It was the first night of the season, and I haven't played in about a zillion years. But of course, I was chosen for the organizer's team for a reason... I'm just short of an olympic-quality athlete.

We lost 3 out of 5 games.

But dammit, we had fun!

Except the part where a psycho guy freaked out when we called him for volleying a serve, which you're not allowed to do. So he goes and asks one of the volunteers and comes back to threaten us with disqualification because the confused volunteer corroborated his erroneous idea about volleying. Well, read the rules. You be the judge.

"Volleying a Serve - A PLAYER MAY NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER VOLLEY A SERVE!!! WE REPEAT, A PLAYER CAN NOT EVER VOLLEY A SERVE UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES!!"

Just so much room for interpretation there, I can see why we were arguing the point. Let's not even mention that this is recreational vball.

I mean, I know that I'm overqualified for recreational league, but I try to dumb-down my skill so that no one forces me into advanced.

Wednesday, May 12, 2004

In the spirit of Raye'sRaye of Sunshine Thank-You page, I have thought of a list of things that have to be thankful for:

my mom, who would do anything for me, including (but not limited to) driving me to work in Toronto after a doctor's appointment in Barrie, paying my first/last month's rent so I can have an apartment, putting my ticket to Calgary/Vancouver on her credit card until I get my first paycheque

Alex, who would also do most anything for me, including letting me stay with him. Although I'm sure that's a little selfish anyway

an interesting job

Thai-food lunches eaten in the park

the approaching summer

Old Navy stretchy jeans that FIT

friends who like to go out, do things, and have fun

unexpectedly curly hair

friends who care enough to warn me when I might be doing something stupid, even though I know it already

Tuesday, May 11, 2004

Today I found out that I'm quite allergic to dust mites. Well, great. Now I have to vaccuum a hundred times day, wash all bedding at least as much, and spray everything with this mite-poison. One must wonder though: if it's killing the dust mites, what's it doing to ME?

Monday, May 10, 2004

Started my new job today. Got to talking about Krispy Kreme (which is what happens when you work right across the road from one of their locations) and did the quiz "What Kind of Krisy Kreme Doughnut are you?" And the answer...?

Sunday, May 09, 2004

This morning, I woke up from a luxurious sleep in my amazing bed at home to the sound of chirping birds outside. Not a bone ached. I was loathe to get up, all comfy and cuddly as I was. If I could hug my bed, I would have.

I did finally get up and had breakfast with my parents as their cat stretched out on my lap. While they went to church, I took a leisurely shower in their newly renovated bright, beautiful bathroom. As I rinsed the shampoo from my hair, I watched a robin fluffing its feathers on a fir tree just outside the window.

I made a lunch of pancakes with banana-caramel sauce for us before taking a walk with my dad around the 2.5 acres of our property, looking at all the cherry, apple and walnut trees coming up, at all of the old maple trees that I used to climb that have now died and been turned into piles of firewood. We checked out all the flowers blooming and the rhubarb shooting up and talked about what to do with the now-empty acres of pastureland in the back, swathes of bright green mowed grass.

God, why do I live in the city?

And, in fact, I will move into my new apartment at Bayview and Sheppard at the end of this month. Yesterday, I signed my agreement and handed over first-and-last month's rent to my new roommate, Robyn.

Thursday, May 06, 2004

OK, someone listened to me about the weather. Today is nice and sunny and supposed to be upwards of 20 degrees, at least!

Had a lovely dinner with Jane last night. She's so great; she totally calmed me down about finding a place to live. You know, sometimes you just need a little perspective and someone to just tell you what to do. Thanks, Jane!

However, I DO think Jane herself needs a little perspective. She's always so stressed out at work. I can't imagine what that does to her quality of life. I suppose that's a choice you make. I find I'm much happier when I don't allow my job to take over my life.

Have had such an interesting conversation with Richard this morning (I'm working at his house this week, freelance). All about life and one's path through it: figuring out what brings you satisfaction, about relationships and about finding peace within yourself.

So I tell Dave that I'm house hunting and he sends me a couple graphics to put up with my roommate profiles... with me as a Klingon. How very Dave.

His advice:

... when you go to a place....you should should wear a leopard bra....and tease your hair really badly.....and have a lisp. Lispy people in leopard bras are factually and statistically more likely to get a new apartment than those who don't wear any bra at all....Or when you go to meet for an apartment, drop something....and say "whoops....silly me" and bend over and pick it up.

Saturday, May 01, 2004

Just woke up to a call from Australia! I love it when people call me! I LOVE my mobile! LOVE LOVE LOVE. How did I EVER live without one?

I woke up confused, however, because I stayed at Tree's house last night after a big night out at the bar.

My mom had visited me in Aurora yesterday for lunch and so I could sign my taxes (my dad did them; he's the smartest!). Mom drove me downtown via a circuitous route, as we were looking at places for sublet. She dropped me at my friend Anita's house. Anita's a great photographer whom I lived with in university for three years. She's looking so amazing! It was so nice to talk to her.

Then I went to the Infinet going-away party for JT. I can't believe I hired him so many years ago! He's going freelance now, which is a brave move. Of course I talked to lots of other Infinauts about what's going on in their lives, too. I became the blabbering idiot, as always! God, I need to stop doing that!

Tree convinced me to go out to the Phoenix, a nightclub we used to go to when we were in university. I have no money, but at least there was no cover charge and I figured I could just dance the night away instead of drinking my face off. I did both.

I keep forgetting how much I love dancing. And how much I hate it when people try to touch me on the dance floor. Ew. Tree actually decked a guy who grabbed her ass. I laughed guiltily as he fell to the floor. Why do guys do that?

We ended up home at something like 3am and I fell into bed. I mean, there was no way I could get back to Aurora at that time. But this all brings us back to me waking up to my phone ringing, confused. With make up smudged under my eyes and my hair the most wild and curly ever. (Well, except for the time when... uh, nevermind.)

And now I'm sitting listening to the sound of kids shrieking and parents cheering and whistles blowing over in the park, wishing I could join them, but realizing that I have no clothes. Hm. Time to go home! I hope the Go Bus driver doesn't notice how amazing my hair is this morning...